AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS VS ASTROS

October 9, 2023

Kyle Farmer

Ryan Jeffers

Target Field

Minnesota Twins

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Kyle, did you give your team a lift last night? What did that feel like to be able to contribute?

KYLE FARMER: It was cool. When you practice stuff, and you see it happening in the game, it's pretty exciting. I give credit to Willi Castro, the at-bat before me, got to see a lot of pitches. Maybe it tired him out, maybe it didn't.

But a guy putting a good at-bat in front of you always gives you a lot of confidence going into it.

Q. For each of you, what has it been like to watch the Carlos Correa experience this October?

RYAN JEFFERS: It's everything we thought it would be in the playoffs. We've all watched him from the outside looking in, kind of jealous of what he's been able to do on some of the other teams he's played for in the playoffs.

To have him on your side doing what he's always done, it's a nice boost for us. It makes us feel great. It makes us feel confident whenever he's up there in big spots.

Just you can't match the experience that he's got playing 85 playoff games now in his career. I'm sure that's more than most MLB organizations. It's a good guy to have on our side.

KYLE FARMER: I think I saw a stat, I think they posted it on their Instagram or something, that his -- his career numbers in the postseason, and I was looking at it, and I was like that's a great year for somebody. What he puts up in the playoffs is something that not an everyday, average MLB player does in the regular season.

So just watching him and seeing how locked in and focused he is, it feeds all -- his energy feeds off to everybody. I'm glad he's on our team.

Q. Ryan, you had an up-close look at Yordan Alvarez's at-bats in the first couple of games. Now it's Sonny, who doesn't generally give up home runs. Do you guys --

RYAN JEFFERS: It would be Phil to do that.

Q. Hey, I'm not asking about the streak anymore. Do you guys change the plan or trust that Sonny's stuff is different? And how much more discussion is there about his at-bats in particular?

RYAN JEFFERS: I think after day one, when he hit the two homers, we sat down, we looked at it. We said, what can we do better? If you're going to look at that lineup, that guy is arguably one of the best hitters in the game, top three for sure.

So you go up and down that lineup, and you always, no matter who you're playing, you try to find, okay, this is a guy we're really going to focus on. This is a guy we're not going to let beat us. We understand the situation when he comes up.

But, you know, we're going to be aggressive. We're going to attack these guys. We're not going to give in. Something that Pablo did really well yesterday against Yordan was attack him. I don't think we shied away. When you get passive, when you're making pitches, you usually make mistakes. You leave something over the middle.

So being able to attack on the edges and attack to a plan, we did a really good job of that. He's a really good hitter. He's going to get his hits, but limiting the damage and the runs batted in and understanding, like I said, the situation that's apparent when he comes up is the biggest part.

Q. Can both you guys just speak to Target Field, the atmosphere, what you expect tomorrow, what you saw last week, and what that does for you during the playoffs?

KYLE FARMER: I was shocked at the Wild Card games, how loud it got. I played in Houston in '17 in the World Series, and that was one of the loudest stadiums I've ever been in. Then coming back here to Minnesota, hearing the fans, I mean, it was pretty spot on, very similar.

Then going to Houston now and then comparing it to our stadium, our stadium, I think, was a lot louder, I think personally. Tomorrow I saw it was sold out, and the Wild Card game wasn't sold out, so I'm expecting it to be a little bit louder than the Wild Card game.

These fans are excited for good baseball, and I think we'll give it to them.

RYAN JEFFERS: Yeah, I think all of us kind of were surprised. They closed that roof Game 1 in Houston, and I think we all were ready to get our eardrums blown up. Baseball crowd noise is a funky thing because it kind of plays both ways. Home crowd, away crowd, they're cheering when you're on offense, they're cheering when you're on defense because they're cheering for the pitcher, they're cheering for the batter. So noise is noise.

I think, when it came down to it, our place was louder. I think the fans stayed in it the whole game. They were on their feet for seven of the nine innings, it felt like. So all we can ask is that same energy comes tomorrow and Wednesday.

Q. Piggy-backing off that question to both of you, how do you size up what is now a best of three with you guys now having the advantage of Games 3 and 4 here at Target Field?

RYAN JEFFERS: When you start these five-game series on the road, you look at any -- it's not like I have a ton of experience. I've watched a lot of series. You always talk about you want to win one of those games on the road to bring it back home not in the hole.

I think being able to now turn it into a game of three -- a best-of-three series, we've got two games at home. We've got Sonny lined up, who arguably is top three Cy Young race this year. And then if we need a Game 5, we've got Pablo lined up on normal rest.

So I think we like our chances. We like our chances against anybody. It just so happens that we're in a pretty good spot right now.

KYLE FARMER: Yeah, I think the Astros, they're a great baseball team. It's very hard to beat them. Us being able to go in there and split the series there, 1-1, was really, really good. That's very hard to do is beat them and win over there.

So I think coming back here, these two games, we've just got to play our game. We have all the confidence in the world in Sonny and our pitching staff and our defense and our offense. So we've just got to play like we've been playing the second half of this year and just keep going.

Q. Ryan's been around here longer, but for you both, Polo and Kep are organizational lifers. They've seen a lot here. Can you tell that in the way they go about their business? And can you tell what it's been like for them to finally get over the hump here and kind of make a run into the playoffs like this?

RYAN JEFFERS: You can kind of see -- I know we saw the interview yesterday as a wholesome moment seeing them bond on the stage. But you can see the way they're lighter. I don't know how much weight they're really carrying from just not -- being in this organization for so long and not having the success that they would want to have.

But they're both playing super free. Kep is just really in a different spot. Just mentally he's just so free, so happy. And when you're doing that, when you can play like that on the baseball field, a lot of good things happen.

It's awesome to see their bond, but it's awesome to see how happy they are.

Q. For both players, just how confident are you coming back home 1-1 knowing that you've got Sonny going on the mound on the big stage in the next game?

KYLE FARMER: Gosh, I never put any doubt in Sonny. Sonny is going to come in, do his routine, not talk to anybody. You kind of have to get out of his way. He stays locked in all day. I think big-time players are meant for big-time opportunities, and I think that's what Sonny is. He's been training for this his whole career.

It started in college at Vanderbilt. They breed winners over there. Then he comes to the Big Leagues and has been a winner. So I think Sonny -- we give the ball to Sonny. We're excited about it. He's going to go out there and compete.

Q. Kyle, we saw the right-handed lineup yesterday. It's a different look. You guys are a little more veteran, you and Donovan and Willi are different type of hitters. No more lefties. No one in the pen. Framber's already thrown.

Have you identified anybody in their pen, are there pockets there, where the likes of yourself, Donovan, Willi can still potentially maybe bring that change of pace offensively?

KYLE FARMER: I think it's more so -- I don't know how Rocco is going to go about it. It's above my pay grade. But I think he puts guys in the right situations at the right time, as we saw last night.

I struck out based loaded, and they brought in Eddie off the bench to get in a big knock with the bases loaded. That's what we've been doing all year, and Rocco and the staff put everybody in a good spot.

So I think we just have to -- who knows? They can put us in any situation. I think Willie is the first guy off the bench in any situation, whether it's a righty or lefty, he's a switch hitter. Having no lefties in the bullpen is strange. I've seen it before. But that's just what they do.

Q. When you guys are playing in this postseason, the Toronto and the first couple Houston games, it seems like you guys have been the aggressors trying to push things, whether it's a defensive move, whether it's going for the extra base. Where does that come from, and has that been a conscious decision? Is it something that the team has talked about or the coaching staff?

RYAN JEFFERS: Yeah, I think it goes back to the earlier question about how we're going to pitch Alvarez. You can't shy away from these big names, these big organizations that have done so much. Success comes from being aggressive and not being passive.

When you're playing on the back foot, when you're playing scared, you're not going to play good. So having the confidence in who we are as a team, who we are as a pitching staff, who we are as a position player group, lets us be on attack because we trust ourselves. We feel confident in what we have, what we are as a team, and it just lets us play free and lets us play aggressive.

You'd rather make a mistake on the aggressive side than be passive and look back and say, darn, I wish we did something different. So we're going to be aggressive, and if we go down aggressive, then that's going to be fine with us. But we're not going to be passive.